AgDevCo backs Ugandan milling company Talian in debt deal

Social impact investor AgDevCo is backing Talian, a Ugandan milling business, in a $450,000 debt deal. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The financing will help Talian’s plans to scale up its operations to meet the opportunity created by the demand in the region’s food markets, as well as supply the premium industrial starch flour to its East African customers. Until now, the company has struggled to access working capital and long-term debt finance and consequently been unable to fully utilise its production capacity. With an increased ability to purchase maize grain and cassava from more than 6,500 small holder farmers in Northern Uganda, Talian will help strengthen the commercial cassava value-chain in the country as well as provide smallholders with higher, sustainable incomes.

Talian is a family-run business which generally exports its milled maize and cassava flour regionally. The firm has ambitions of becoming a significant operator in the maize and cassava flour markets in East and Central Africa, thereby expanding the market reach of Northern Uganda’s cassava and grain farmers.

“This investment exemplifies AgDevCo’s commitment to filling the financing gap for SME agribusinesses across Africa, and in doing so, providing a much-needed uplift to the incomes of Africa’s millions of smallholder farmers, said Kim Kamarebe, an Associate Director at AgDevCo. “Our investment in Talian affords us the opportunity to demonstrate the impact of patient capital to SME businesses.” Source: Africa Capital Digest